CEREALS. 263 



destroyed in the spring also, by fire, taking care to burn all the trailing branches. This 

 destroys all the seeds, and is therefore a more effectual means of extermination than grubbing. 

 Birches require several cuttings in August, each year, before they can be conquered. 



In all cases, the surrounding circumstances will have to be taken into account in deciding 

 what shall be done with such pastures, such as the nature of the soil, locality, etc. Some 

 lands will not pay for the labor of renovating, and where this is the case, it will, of course, 

 be the best way to let them alone; others will well repay the labor bestowed in vastly increas 

 ing the productive capacity and value of the land. 



The soiling system is well worthy the attention of farmers having remote pastures or 

 those of poor quality, and which would not repay the expense of renovating. The same 

 might be said of the ensilage system in connection with a winter supply of green food for 

 stock. 



CEREALS. 



WITH the exception of buckwheat, cereal plants belong to the order Graminaceae 

 (true grasses), but differ widely in their structure, character, and method of cul 

 tivation. 



It is gratifying to note that during the years 1 870 and 1880, there was the unprecedented 

 advance in the cereal production of the United States of about a hundred per cent, for all 

 kinds taken together, while the increase of the previous decade, or between 1860 and 1870, 

 was but twelve per cent. 



The increase in the cereal product between 1850 and 1860, which was a period of noted 

 agricultural growth, was forty-three per cent. The total number of acres under wheat cul 

 tivation in the United States in 1880, was 35,487,065, which yielded a crop of 459,591,093 

 bushels. In 1870 the wheat crop of the country amounted to 287,745,626 bushels. The 

 increase of wheat-growing in the last decade is shown by a comparison with former enumera 

 tions, to be seventy-three per cent. ; that between 1860 and 1870, to be sixty-six per cent., 

 and between 1850 and 1860, sixty per cent. 



We also find that Illinois shows the largest area under wheat, aggregating 3,218,963 

 acres; next Iowa, with 3,049,347 acres; Minnesota, with 3,046,821; Indiana, 2,619,307; 

 Ohio, 2,556,134; Missouri, 2,074,314; Wisconsin, 1,948,036; Kansas, 1,861,342; California, 

 1,837,322; Michigan, 1,822,752, and that the six States of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, 

 Minnesota, and Iowa, produce more than half the wheat of the whole nation. 



The increase in the product of corn between 1870 and 1880 was one hundred and thirty- 

 three per cent., the amount produced in 1870 being 760,844,549 bushels, while that of 1880 

 reached 1,772,909,846 bushels. In 1880 the number of acres in the United States devoted 

 to the cultivation of corn was 62,326,932, the State of Illinois leading in this product. 



The increase in the production of oats during the last ten years has been about forty- 

 five percent.; that of barley, nearly fifty per cent.; that of rye only about seventeen per 

 cent., while the minor cereal buckwheat has not increased in proportion to the advance in 

 population the total crop in 1870 being 9,821,721 bushels, while that of 1880 was 11,851,- 

 738 bushels. 



It is also gratifying to note the increased interest in the cultivation of the cereals in the 

 cotton -growing States since 1870 the increase in the corn product alone in that section being 

 about forty per cent. From present indications the report of the next decade, or that of 

 1890, may be expected to show a surprising advance on the above-mentioned rates of increase, 

 while that which marks the close of the present century will doubtless exceed the most san 

 guine expectations, so immeasurably great are the resources and facilities of the country for 

 the extension and development of this branch of agriculture. 

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